Only 8.3 Percent Complete Their Terms in Prison

For the past 12 years since 1993, when the audit and inspection against politicians started full-scale and brought many big figures to justice, only less than 10 percent of high-ranking officers who were charged of bribery, violation of the election law and other illegal activities completely finished their terms in prison without any release measures such as probation or pardon.

On the other hand, the percentage of innocence was 10 times higher than the average innocence rate of normal criminal offenses, according to the report.

The special report team of Dong-A Ilbo pursued the facts of judgment, bail, suspension of execution, and pardon that were given to 464 high-ranking officers in political, governmental, juridical, military areas since 1993, and analyzed them based on the “Computer Assisted Reporting” technique. According to the result, 337 out of 464 big figures received a verdict, and only 70 persons (20.8 percent) were sentenced imprisonment. The rest were lightly sentenced such as probation, suspension of judgment, or fines.

In addition, among the 70 sentenced people for imprisonment, 41 have been freed during their term by bail, suspension of execution, and pardon. Only 28 people (8.3 percent) have either completed their term of punishment or are currently in prison.

After all, the big wigs of absurdity tend to receive a verdict of innocence far higher than the average individual. And even if they are found guilty, the term of imprisonment is quite insignificant and also they rarely finish their terms in prison.

The absence of judicial justice seems pretty serious when it comes to the bribery related crimes.

Among 112 offenders who were prosecuted for taking bribes and delivered judgment, the percentage of suspension of execution for 97 people, except for 11 who were found innocent or sentenced fine, reached 69.1 percent. The lowest sentence for violating bribery law is five years of imprisonment, which is equal to homicide crime.

During the past 12 years, among 70 lawmakers who were prosecuted for violating the election law and then judged guilty, the number of lawmakers who were fined more than one million won, which corresponds to the nullity of election, was no more than 20 people (28 percent).

Regarding this, Chung Jong-sub, professor of Law at the Seoul National University, said, “By seeing the result, we need to raise a question and review from the bottom what the legal system is in our society and for whom does it exist.”